Book Arts Mentorship Award
With the support of the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation, SFCB offers one-on-one mentorships for experienced book artists held at SFCB’s facility in Potrero Hill. Each mentor brings a wealth of experience, expertise, and passion for their craft. They are dedicated educators who are committed to nurturing the next generation of book artists.
This program is an opportunity for mid-career and established artists from underrepresented communities to learn from skilled professionals in the bookbinding, letterpress, and artists book fields. Priority will be given to applicants who identify as Black, Indigenous, and people from other racially marginalized groups. Mentees will work closely with their mentor who will provide personalized guidance tailored to their individual artistic goals and needs.
2025
Mentors:
Julie Chen and Zach Clark
Meet the Mentors
Julie Chen would like to work with an experienced book artist who is interested in focusing on content development for artist's books in which text, image and book and box structure all contribute in meaningful ways.
This would involve a deep consideration of how the book as object can be more than a beautiful container for content: The physical book should be a meaningful component of the content. While the mentoring session would most likely cover some craft and design techniques, the focus would be on content development brainstorming and the making of mock-ups and prototypes for future artist's book projects.
Zach Clark is interested in working with artists looking to create serious book works that embrace and acknowledge the quirks, limitations, and possibilities of Risograph, with a positive attitude towards experimentation with the unexpected.
Applicants should either be proficient in Adobe tools or have a project idea that relies primarily on working physically with the scanner bed, with the goal of creating a project of a sizable edition. Thematically, Zach is especially drawn towards projects that are working with vulnerable and sensitive topics while maintaining approachability.
2024
Mentors:
John DeMerritt, Li Jiang, and Emily McVarish
Mentees:
Danielle McCoy (Portland, OR), S. Erin Batiste (Brooklyn, NY), and Marianetta Porter (Ann Arbor, MI)
Meet the Mentors
John DeMerritt (bookbinding)
Areas of Expertise: Edition binding, box making, foil stamping and embossing, collaborative design work, project management, small business operations. Click here to learn more about John DeMerritt.
Li Jiang (letterpress printing)
Areas of Expertise: Letterpress printing on proof, platen, and hand presses; editioning for both printing and binding; tight printing registration, multi-color prints; incorporating make-ready techniques into artwork; free software suite of design programs such as Inkscape, Gimp, and Scribus. Click here to learn more about Li Jiang.
Emily McVarish (artists’ books)
Areas of Expertise: Artists’ books; expressive typography as an extension of writing; interaction of textual and book features (graphic composition of page-space and sequence); systematic design that makes creative use of the material processes and technical conditions of letterpress (Vandercook only); experimentation with text and image relations, integration of photographic imagery through fearless engagement with relief halftone processes. Click here to learn more about Emily McVarish.
